'Community Building' test in motion

Bromford have recently been experimenting with the notion of ABCD - that is asset based community development to you and I. The premise is all about growing a community from within, enabling residents with the facilities and tools they need to flourish - be it a community space, green parks or footballs for the local youth team.

At the core of 'ABCD' are connected communities, groups of individuals who are aware of what's going on and want to get involved. By all means this is no mean feat - if it was, wouldn't all of our communities already be connected?

So - what's the best way to join up the dots? We're going to attempt to replicate something that seems to have gained a lot of traction in small, isolated tests - an individual employed to engage residents and match them to each other or local activity groups based on interests and aspirations. Early design sessions weren't enough to adequately pin down our service offer - so we've launched into a two week test whereby our opportunities manager Damian will attempt the role, documenting his successes and failures along the way.